Giants on the Move: A Puppet Street Parade

Presented by Serendipity Arts

Witness a stunning spectacle as handmade puppets, created from bamboo and dyed cloth, move along Exhibition Road.

A man walks beside an elephant, a bird glides above another, a camel drifts next to a woman, a deer dances with a child. For brief moments, the streets of South Kensington will be taken over by a living, working procession, directed by puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee and presented by Serendipity Arts.

Weaving up Exhibition Road between the museum facades and the pavement cafés, you’ll experience a parade of giants built from bamboo frames and hand-stitched cloth, their surfaces patched with locally dyed indigo, red threads of wedding sarees, field-greens, and spice-like gold linens.

Each figure draws from a different community of India and the history that it carries. Together they form a gathering of many lives. As the procession moves forward, cloth becomes skin, bamboo becomes bone, and the road itself becomes a place of congregation and celebration rather than just passage.

Sound is made live, as drummers set the pace with a steady pulse, and the clacking of the puppeteers’ steps, along with the taps of the bamboo come together to form the score. For a short while, the city will hold a different rhythm, where many forms move together in balance, sharing space without hierarchy and imagining a world shaped by coexistence.

Credits

Concept and Direction
Dadi Pudumjee, Founder, The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust

Puppeteers
Vivek Kumar, Shamsul, Shameem Mohammad, Kumari Yadav, Mohit Mukherjee, Thirusiloovai Joshua Chin, Vinay Bhaat, Mukesh Bhaat, Rahul Kumar, Ajit Bhatt

Musicians
Nathoo Lal Solanki, Tej Prakash Solanki, Narsi Lal Solanki, Vijay Ran

Visitor information

This is a drop-in event suitable for all ages. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

The event has step-free access.

To attend the Festival, please make sure to register for free. Registering is the only way to receive the latest Festival updates, a first look at the programme, and opportunities to book free tickets for popular events.

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